It’s not a heat wave that will scare metalheads… though. While the west of France is hit by an unprecedented heat wave for mid-June with temperatures approaching 40 degrees, Hellfest is not immune to this episode of extreme heat.
In Clisson, in Loire-Atlantique, the biggest European metal festival begins this Friday, June 17 and will continue until June 26. An XXL edition over two weekends with 350 concerts to “catch up” with the 2021 edition canceled due to Covid-19, as the 2020 edition had already been. Thousands of fans have already been present on the site since Thursday June 16. The metalheads are smiling, even if they suffer from the heat.
The festival campsite, installed on a plot lent by a farmer, is devoid of the slightest tree. The tents placed in the middle of the dodger are real ovens. “We’re going to be hot, but that’s the game”, smiles a festival-goer. In the pogos, the temperature should rise another notch to reach a feeling close to the flames of Hell: the Hellfest will never have lived up to its name so well. To avoid accidents, the organizers therefore redouble their attention, as explained by Ben Barbaud, the director of Hellfest.
“Usually, we always had an SDIS pump truck (Departmental Fire and Rescue Service) who came to water the public in front of the stages. This year we will go to three trucks scattered on the site. And we decided to let all the festival-goers pass with water bottles and water bottles with caps. We will be extremely vigilant with the rescuers, with the SDIS, to be as close as possible to the people who will suffer from this heat”says Ben Barbaud.
On the bill for this first day of the festival, there will notably be the duo of rockers from the Landes, The Inspector Cluzo. Mathieu Jourdain (drums) and Laurent Lacrouts (vocals and guitar) start a European tour at Hellfest.
While they still share their lives between their farm and the stage, these foie gras producers express their happiness in leading this life as “seasonal” artists. “We don’t just perform, just music, just release albums. We’re also farmers. It’s important to take care of the farm and the music side and to combine all that. The stage is the culmination of the work that was done upstream”says Mathieu Jourdain.
Among the other groups that will climb on the main stage on Friday June 17, there will also be the very popular The Offspring, but also Deftones or The Dropkick Murphys. Waiting for the next few days to be very heavy with in particular the legendary group Metallica at the end of the festival on June 26th.
All the programming of the Hellfest 2022 festival is to be discovered on the official website.